


Eternity

by Wallwalker



Category: Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth
Genre: Angst, Breakup, F/M, OGC, Post-Canon, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-17
Updated: 2009-11-17
Packaged: 2017-10-03 04:53:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wallwalker/pseuds/Wallwalker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eternity is forever. Can such a love truly endure for so long?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eternity

Consider eternity.

At first you thought that it was a simple enough concept. Eternity is time, uninterrupted by death and birth. It is forever.

Eternity never ends. You truly believed that you understood that, at least at first.

Sometimes you wonder if Lucian ever did.

\---

"I wanted to be with you until the day I died," he tells you one day, as you stand together in Valhalla - and it doesn't escape you that he's talking about what he _wanted,_ quietly and wistfully, a little boy again in shoes that have somehow become too big for him to fill.

For all of your supposed wisdom and power, you stay silent, because what can you say to that? That you wanted the same thing, that if only you hadn't become the master of creation you would have made sure of it? That even with everything that you have gained - the power to heal, to protect, to rule the race of men without grinding it beneath your heel as Odin once did - Platina is still inside of you, still lost in this world of gods and yearning for a simple life, one where her mother and father loved and cared for her and her beloved Lucian will never leave her as long as she lives?

It feels strange, thinking of yourself as two souls, one split from the other. Platina is only someone that you once were, one mortal incarnation out of many; should that not be enough? Why must she be so willful?

"So did I," you say, because you cannot lie to him, but the full truth will not come easily to your lips.

\---

One day, as you are investigating disturbances in the mountains near Valhalla (for there are always monsters in any creation, despite the creator's best intentions, and you sometimes wonder which one of these monsters came from the confusion within your heart) you find something... strange, trapped within a crevasse of the stone. It is there, right where your eye falls - if it had been elsewhere, surely you would have stepped over it without a second thought.

That alone is strange enough. Enough, you think at first, to give you warning... a warning that you do not heed, in your curiosity. (Is curiosity a human emotion, you wonder, or a divine one? Or is it something else entirely?) Instead you reach down and pick it up, examine it closely.

It is a piece of parchment, and apparently quite new, despite the fact that these mountains are uninhabited save for monsters. Another strangeness. The ink on the parchment smells of aqua vitae and nightshade and onyx, and so you read it with a guarded eye.

_Eternity is a daunting thing for those with mundane minds,_ read the words in that messy hand. _Do you not agree, my dearest beloved?_

You frown. Another monster, this, and not one of your making - the Brahms to your Odin, he is. Must every creator have a nemesis?

One day you shall have to deal with this one; all that stays your hand is the debt that you owe him, strangely enough, and the knowledge that he may well have kept some fatal secret. But for now you can only throw the parchment to the ground, to rot and be forgotten.

But even you cannot forget on a whim. The words stay with you, burnt into your memory, and you wonder if even so twisted a mind can sometimes hit upon the truth.

\---

All of creation is yours.

Every blade of grass, every animal, every human soul - all of them exist because of you, ransomed by your power after Loki scoured the worlds clean. They are your responsibility. Their lives are yours, to ruin or bless as you see fit.

Odin ruined too many lives. You can see that now that your memories have returned. You do not wish to be like Odin, and allow humanity to sit stagnant for centuries. You wish for every single one of them to prosper.

And so you must spend many hours watching over them, making sure that they do not destroy themselves with their newfound power, but also making sure that you do not stunt their growth, as the Aesir once did. It is easy to engross yourself in their affairs, an endless parade of humanity, souls living and dying and returning to be reborn for eternity. Easy to do nothing but watch them.

Easy to forget all else.

\---

The Aesir are gone; you have sent them to live as humans, to be born and reborn, in the hopes that someday they will understand (with one notable exception, for Loki is still far too dangerous to release, and so he languishes within your own soul.) Your once-Einherjar are the ones who watch creation by your side, each of them sharing a part of your own responsibilities over the worlds.

Lucian watches over Midgard almost as much as you do, but you can see that his gaze is not upon all of the life of the worlds. He watches humans as they are born, as they live and die, as they are reborn. And most of all - why did this surprise you? - he watches lovers as they meet, as they grow old together and die by each other's side.

"You envy them," you say one day, as you stand beside Lucian. It is not a question, only acknowledgment of the truth.

Lucian sighs. "Platina -" he begins, then catches himself. "I mean, Lenneth... I guess I'm just not used to this."

"I see." What else can you say to that? Inside of you, Platina is crying, afraid. _Lucian, I'm here... please, don't talk as if I were gone!_ She is gasping the words through her sobs, and you wish that you knew how to comfort her.

"I mean, I really am grateful," he continues, more quietly. "And it's not that I don't love you. It's just that, well, being here forever... that's an awfully long time, right?"

"Indeed," you say - an obvious truth that no longer seems so clear, even to you.

You remember telling Lucian long ago that love cannot exist between humans and gods. And now that you have had time to think, you are beginning to realize that perhaps you were right, in a way. Perhaps mortal love cannot weather eternity; perhaps it is short-lived by nature, flaring up and then slowly burning away. The message left for you on a scrap of parchment returns to your mind yet again; this time, in the face of the truth, you cannot push it away.

How long have you been Lord of Creation? How long have you expected this mortal love to sustain you both? And yet... you do love Lucian and Platina both in your way, a divine love that burns dim but long, weathering eternity. You cannot bear to know that they are so unhappy, even as your own heart breaks.

"Is an end to eternity truly what you wish?" you say, asking Lucian and also the spirit of the woman within yourself. "Given the choice... would you choose to be mortal again?"

Their answers are the same. "Yes."

You try not to sigh, knowing that tomorrow everything would be different. "Then so be it."

\---

Lucian is gone. So is Platina, and you feel empty without her. But it is just as well - Platina had become her own person, in a way, no longer a mere aspect of you. It seemed fitting for you to create a vessel for her, to release her soul from yours and give her a life of her own.

Lucian loved Platina, as deeply as a mortal boy could love a mortal girl. All of this began because of the reflection of her that he saw in you. But Lucian always deserved better than a mere reflection, or a soul split in twain. They are happy now, a mortal boy and a mortal girl, deeply in love. You have watched them grow up together, have nudged obstacles out of their way with a careful touch. Let them have their happiness, you think, even if it cannot be for eternity. Let them have their childhood dreams.

You stand engrossed in their lives, and the lives of all the worlds; your heart aches for both of them, but the ache fades as you see their happiness grow. Time heals all wounds, as the cliche goes.

And time is one thing that you will never, ever want for.

\---

Eternity is forever.

Someday, you think, you will understand the full scope of that simple fact.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story that was kicking around in my head ever since I first played Valkyrie Profile, and drew heavily on some fanon stuff that we'd talked about. I hadn't played VP:S when I wrote this, so it doesn't reference any of that game's canon. A bit disjointed, and I can't believe that I just wrote an entire fic in the second person, but I hope it worked!


End file.
